The age structure of the Sydney Statistical Division (SD) is markedly different from that of the remainder of NSW, most notably in the age groups 20-24 through to 40-44 years. At June 2008, people aged 20-44 years accounted for 38.4% of the total Sydney population compared with 30.1% of residents in the remainder of NSW. This may reflect people aged 20-44 years migrating to Sydney for education, employment and lifestyle reasons. Within the Sydney SD, the LGAs with the highest proportions of people aged 65 years and over were Hunters Hill (A) (18.3%) in northern Sydney, and Wyong (A) and Gosford (C) (both 18.0%) on the Central Coast.

New South Wales

The median age of the NSW population at June 2008 was 37.1 years, an increase of 0.8 years since June 2003. The median age for females (37.9 years) was 1.6 years higher than for males (36.3 years), reflecting their longer life expectancy. Between June 2003 and June 2008, the NSW population aged 65 years and over increased from 882,500 (13.2%) to 962,800 people (13.8%). At June 2008, the SD with the highest proportion of residents of this age was the Mid-North Coast (19.7%).

The population of Indigenous Australians is projected to increase from 517,000 people in 2006 to between 713,300 and 721,100 people in 2021, at an average growth rate of 2.2% per year.

The Indigenous population of NSW is projected to increase from 152,700 people in 2006 to between 208,300 and 210,600 people in 2021, at an average growth rate of between 2.1% and 2.2% per year.

The number of Indigenous children (0-14 years) in NSW is projected to increase from 58,400 in 2006 to between 73,400 and 73,600 in 2021, while the number of Indigenous people aged 25-54 years is projected to increase from 52,500 in 2006 to between 73,000 and 73,500 in 2021.

The number of older Indigenous people (55 years and over) in NSW is projected to double, from 12,800 in 2006 to between 25,400 and 26,800 in 2021.

The ABS released the latest edition of Australian Social Trends (cat. no. 4102.0) on 24 September 2009. The publication draws together a wide range of statistics from the ABS and other official sources to provide a picture of Australian society and how it is changing over time.

The latest edition features five articles:

Expanding links with China and India

Children who are overweight and obese

Carers and employment

People with more than one job

Work, life and family balance

The release also included indicator spreadsheets presenting national and state summary data on health and economic resources.

The ABS is pleased to announce the release of TableBuilder, a new online tool that allows you to create your own tables of 2006 Census data by accessing all variables contained in the Census Output Record File including age, education, housing, income, transport, religion, ethnicity, occupation, family composition and more for all ABS geographic areas.

TableBuilder also allows you the freedom to select and combine areas and data that interest you by creating your own customised geographic areas or custom data groups. You start with a blank table and then select Census variables to cross-tabulate to produce small to very large tables. The tables, graphs and maps created in TableBuilder can be downloaded in a variety of formats. Tables can also be saved within the product so they can be retrieved in future sessions.

Access to 2006 Census data in TableBuilder is available by subscription for the one off price of $1,655.

Planning is well underway for the 2011 Census of Population and Housing including a Dress Rehearsal which is scheduled for June 2010. The Dress Rehearsal will be undertaken in selected regions across Australia including parts of Sydney and regional NSW.

Conducting a Census in Australia is an enormous undertaking, involving the recruitment of over 30,000 people (including 10,000 people in NSW), large scale public relations activities, and detailed local strategies for reaching every member in our diverse and dispersed communities.

The last Federal Budget delivered $79.5m for payment of field staff in the 2011 Census. This represents an increase in funding and will ensure compliance with the new National Employment Standards under the revised workplace relations system. The ABS also received $20.8m through Council of Australian Governments (COAG) initiatives to improve the quality of the Census count of Indigenous Australians.

The ABS is continuing to engage with local governments, Federal and State agencies, and non-government organisations to discuss local issues regarding recruitment and enumeration. All of this time and money is dedicated to ensuring high quality data across all regions and for all communities from the 2011 Census.

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) is the peak intergovernmental forum in Australia. Its role is to initiate, develop and monitor the implementation of policy reforms that are of national significance. In December 2008, COAG signed five new historic agreements to provide an overarching framework between Commonwealth and State financial reporting relations and a new national reform agenda across five broad areas of policy being:

Health and Ageing

Disability

Education, Skills and Workplace Development

Affordable Housing

Indigenous

The ABS has been a key player in the COAG process, not just as a data provider but more importantly via the adoption of the ABS Data Quality Framework by all parties reporting on COAG outcomes and outputs. This will enable the performance indicator data (collated by the Productivity Commission) to make a significant and increased contribution to each of the policy reform areas through the preparation and validation of performance reporting data. To facilitate this role, a senior ABS officer in ABS NSW was outposted to the COAG Reform Council (CRC) for a period earlier this year.

To date, the CRC has achieved a number of milestones in its reporting responsibilities to COAG, culminating in the Report of the National Agreement on Education, Skills and Workplace Development. ABS provided valuable quality assurance assistance and analytical support led by a specialist team set up in ABS NSW. CRC will now focus on the identification of data gaps and possible improvements to data collections as well as reporting on the reform areas of Health and Ageing, Disability, Affordable Housing and Indigenous.

An exciting line up of speakers provided for stimulating and informative discussion at the Community Indicators Summit held in Brisbane on 22-23 July 2009. The Summit, hosted by the ABS, highlighted the benefits of having integrated information management methods and promoted a coordinated, coherent and consistent approach to the development of community indicators across Australia. The event was also an important event for advancing the National Statistical Service (NSS).

Around 170 delegates from government, academia and community organisations were keen to put forward their questions, ideas and thoughts during the Summit. Community-based indicators are becoming a hot topic as global discussion increases on the need to develop a more comprehensive view of progress than just the economic one (for example, Gross Domestic Product).

Michael Hogan, Assistant Director-General of the Department of Communities in Queensland, set the context for the broad and timely discussion. Speakers including Jon Hall, from the OECD, and Leigh Gatt, from Big Cities New Zealand Project, followed with their views and experiences on measuring progress. Professor Yvonne Cadet-James, from James Cook University, Queensland, spoke about the successful development of Indigenous community indicators. This topic was further discussed at one of the concurrent sessions, led by Urban Sociologist Geoff Woolcock, from Griffith University.

Outcomes of the Summit, including the Summit declaration prepared by delegates during the two days, will be presented as part of Australia's contribution to the 3rd OECD World Forum on 'Statistics, Knowledge and Policy' to be held in Busan, Korea in October 2009.

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